Monday, July 31, 2006

What’s prompted this blog title I hear you ask? Well for those of you who caught yesterday’s instalment, you will know I had to put my car in for some work this morning on the suspension that was noticed during the MOT. Unfortunately the problem had grown so it wasn’t so little anymore and necessitated the replacement of the whole front arm of the suspension. Well this and another small problem came to somewhat considerably more then I was expecting. In fact nearly four times as much. The cost of the arm alone was £80 and once you tossed in parts and labour and VAT it came to a whopping £177.14.

Great init? August hasn’t even started and almost a quarter of my wages gone. Argggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! It’s going to be an exceptionally lean month, this month me thinks, just petrol and food. No new toys for me. :-( Well at least until my birthday comes around on the 20th (hint, hint). Grumpy has said he will pay some money towards the cost of repairs. It should be half the cost, which will be good. But I’m going to have to wait until the 15th when he gets paid. Touch wood (smacks himself on the head) there shouldn’t be any problems. But if there are I’m sure I’ll whine about them erhhh I mean mention them here first :-)

Asides from the very nasty shock of the bill for the car this morning, it’s been quite a boring day. The only other real highlight is I went to get a haircut as I was in danger of starting to look like the thing from the Adams family. I did also get a day off as well, so yahh four-day week. Downside I’m sure they’ll be a whole lot of work waiting for me tomorrow morning. I think I’ll try and head in earl to get a headstart. It would mean getting up earlier though. Hey it could happen!

I couldn’t get to an YSA fireside tonight, which I’m betting is currently a lot of fun. I unfortunately don’t have the petrol at the minute and with things being what they are I’m probably going to be driving a bit slower until the 15th at least. It sucks coz I did want to go but unfortunately the ‘fates were against me’ and as MT is at home there was no one handy to beg a lift off. C has just been called a ward YSA rep after they realised MT because they thought his course had finished. D’ohhh!! I have a feeling they’ll be a lot of activities in the works as C isn’t one to let us lie on our laurels. Sw is also due back soon but not the SW I’ve previously mentioned but her sister SW. Wait I think I’ve confused myself and with MT back in September Loughborough YSA goes from strength to strength me thinks touch wood (smacks himself on the head again).

Oh now I’m all dizzy, or is that ditzy? Who knows? Anyway. Till later!

Sunday, July 30, 2006

It’s the weekend once again and like so many weekends it’s not been constructive, as I would have liked. Mainly due to one thing and what’s that I hear you ask? Why grump’s new bed.

As his last one had about fallen apart (I’m fairly certain that the dust was the only thing holding it together) he decided to go and get a new one and spent an awfully lot of money on it. So there we were waiting for it to be delivered when he just happened to drop into the conversation that we were going to have to put it together ourselves. Uh ohh. So it comes to Saturday morning and it arrives. Grumpy says that the sales men had told him it was very easy to put up so we shouldn’t have any problems. (You can see where this is going already can’t u?)

Three main problems with this. Firstly for those of you who may have read my previous posts Grumpy is a man whose technical know how is so great he didn’t realise the iron wasn’t turned on. Two, The bed salesmen probably has to help put up a whole load of beds, so he’s going to be good at it (for example I find it very easy to put models together as I’ve had years of practice but doesn’t mean someone else will.) and third a salesmen isn’t going to make a sale by telling a customer that “ Yes our beds takes ages to put up and you’ll be swearing like a trooper like the end of the night” and there’s also the small fact that their career is going to be frightingly short.

So initially knowing what was bound to happen and as grumpy was so sure that it would be easy to put it up I left him to it. 15 minutes later and an AWFUL lot of swearing later there’s a knock at my door as he comes to ask for help. But in his defence this was a strange bed and the single sheet on instructions he had didn’t help. So after another hour and 45 minutes we both finally admit defeat and I decided to scuttle up the road to beg for help from T. He (fortunately) agreed to come and help which I’m extremely grateful for otherwise I’m sure we would have still been there at midnight. So T with his highly skilled engineering skills managed to put Grumpy and myself to shame by managing to construct the whole bed in just under 30 minutes. Although in our defence some of the holes on the bed frame weren’t deep enough which is why we couldn’t fit them. But T fixed that with a careful considered engineer style response. With a hammer and a block of wood, he, he, he, he..

Church was good today. We had the first lesson with our new YSA teacher, which was good. Although it was a bit of a shock to the system as we had been able to, shall we say “ lets things slide with reading and getting discussions going” which this new teacher isn’t going to let us get away with. Which is a little different after all this time but is probably for the best in the long term J SW also gave a very good talk in sacrament. I’ve hopefully managed to set a date with DL to go home teaching this week. It will be the first time we’ve been in nearly seven months. On the plus side I shouldn’t get my wrist slapped by the Elders quorum president anymore, downside we’re probably going to get stuck for a loonnnggg time at one of our families. This guy is inactive but he still studies a lot and so likes to talk. We haven’t actually been able to have a visit with him yet that is less then an hour. But hey as always I guess we’ll see.

The home teachers came round to see us this evening. I think grumpy got a bit ‘wound up’ at some of their questions but hey he can’t have it both ways. He can’t complain that no one ever contacts him to see how he’s doing and then complain when they do come and see him and ask questions. As the saying goes darned if they do, darned if they don’t.

Anyway that’s all for now. Got to get to bed but not becoz I have work in the morning. I’ve got the day off so the car can go in to get the suspension fixed. Got to drop it off rather early.

Friday, July 28, 2006

I've heard many people before ( mainly foreign 'visitors) say what crazy English weather, but I haven't seen a really good example of this craziness before. Well at least I hadn't seen one before the last couple of days. Take today for instance, it is extremely sunny, in fact so sunny once again you can't leave the building without sunglasses otherwise there's no way you can see where your going. Now compare this to twenty four hours ago when it was raining.

Actually to say it was just raining would be a disservice to describing just how much rain there was. It was mega raining, it was uber raining, it was super mega uber raining (etc, etc I think you get the point) and it got extremely scary trying to drive home. I think I 'aqua plained' at least twice, and the rain was coming down so hard it was impossible to see where the road was starting to flood and trust me hitting a flooded part of a dual carriageway and feeling the car judder and jerk like it was to go into a spin is pretty damn scary ( having spun a car off the road once and it overturning is more then enough for me.) I did try and stop by the co op on the way home to get some bits and pieces food wise but got there to discover then it had flooded. Also the road that runs alongside the side of our house had also flooded quite badly ( I got a photo and hopefully I'll put it up to show you just how bad it got).

Anyway what could make these horrible, horrible very horrible driving conditions worse? that would be right, dumb drivers! You all know the sort , who think that the only way to make the car go is to push the far right pedal all the way to the floor especially in bad conditions. How there was not a serious smash on one of the roads last night, I'll never know. There was probably a whole load of guardian angels working overtime last night I'm sure.

Well Dad is off out on what of his 'secret trips'. He still never tells me where he's going. He obviously still thinks I'm a agent for the MSA or sumthing. I'll just keep my fingers crossed that the YSA don't decided to do something on short notice again.

Nothing much planned for the weekend. Dad's having his new bed delivered which should be interesting watching them trying to get it up the stairs. Although we have got to put his old mattress into a bag ready for them to take it away. Can you say Disaster waiting to happen?? I think ya can! I'm also going to have to keep a eye on the cost of shopping this week. I'm so glad it's payday on Monday any longer and I think I would have been in trouble.

Well asides from that there's not much else really. wow isn't my live really boring at the moment?? I think I need to try and get out more. Grumpy still hasn't said anything about my upcoming birthday, which means he's either forgotten or will leave it to the last minute. Either way yet another not good sign.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

My legions of terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones.

My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.

My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.

Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box.

I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.

When the rebel leader challenges me to fight one-on-one and asks, "Or are you afraid without your armies to back you up?" My reply will be, "No, just sensible."

When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll shoot him, and then say "No".

After I kidnap the beautiful princess, we will be married immediately in a quiet civil ceremony, not a lavish spectacle in three weeks time during which the final phase of my plan will be carried out.

I will not include a self-destruct mechanism unless absolutely necessary. If it is necessary, it will not be a large red button labelled "Danger: Do Not Push".

I will not order my trusted lieutenant to kill the infant who is destined to overthrow me -- I'll do it myself.

I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum -- a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well.

I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat.

I will not waste time making my enemy's death look like an accident: I'm not accountable to anyone and my other enemies wouldn't believe it.

I will make it clear that I do know the meaning of the word "mercy"; I simply choose not show them any.

One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

All slain enemies will be cremated, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal.

My undercover agents will not have tattoos identifying them as members of my organization, nor will they be required to wear military boots or adhere to any other dress codes.

The hero is not entitled to a last kiss, a last cigarette, or any other form of last request.

I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.

I will design all doomsday machines myself. If I must hire a mad scientist to assist me, I will make sure that he is sufficiently twisted to never regret his evil ways and seek to undo the damage he's caused.

I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."

When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Yes, yes I know I'm being a really cheery soul at the moment and the reason for this? Well I discovered the A + S's brood are coming down in August for a trip somewhere with J + T's brood. I tried to book the day off but as the guy who usually covers for me has already booked that week off I can't have that day off as they would be no one to cover the phone. Downside of being such a small department. Sigh........... That's the second time that I have missed seeing all my nieces and nephews thanks to work. Hopefully third times the charm he :-) Otherwise I will start to get very annoyed.

Oh well maybe something will start to go right one of these days.

The trip home last night was oh so fun. Not!!!!!!! A trip of 25 minutes on a clear run turned into a nightmare 1 hour and 20 minute trip. As you can imagine in this heat I had a really large sense of humor failure and felt extremely yucky by the time I got home. Especially after the the majority of the time was spent being stuck on one two mile stretch of road. Now if they had been a accident or something I could have understood what was causing the delay, a fire, a hole appearing in the road Aliens landing etc all would have been annoying but acceptable. But noooooooooo!!! There was absolutely no reason for this monumental traffic jam. It just seemed to be caused by sheer weight of traffic and the high percentage of stupid drivers who seem to work at this end of Nottingham. ( by the way not excusing myself from that classification because I've done some dumb things myself in the past, although I'm not admitting to anything specific and if you've got any evidence it's faked Honest :-).

Well I'm still feeling shattered at the moment. I think I need to start getting to bed earlier or it's all the stress at the moment. Which would be strange if that was the cause because stress usually causes me trouble getting to sleep not making my feel like I'm about to drop off to sleep. Well I suppose it could be that I've subconsciously decided to be difficult with myself and swap 'symptoms' as it were. Who knows, who knows??

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse ( and I should really, really, really know better then to think something like that ) they do get worse. Sort of.

I had a call from Mum last night before I headed home giving me a heads up warning then she and grumpy had, had yet another massive argument, not sure what started it ( but then again I'm not sure what starts most of their arguments) but at one point had him threatening to burn all of our photo albums because mum hadn't come to collect them and he didn't want to give them 'to the girls'. As you can imagine that extremely worried mum and she came round to ours at Lunchtime to get them. Now you can imagine how much that impressed grumpy as he still has that quite frankly ridiciculus ruling that Mum shouldn't come into 'his house' without asking permission or one of us being there. So I went home with some worry to what mood he would be in. All he said was he hadn't had a good day as he had, had a blazing argument with mum and she had come into the house and taken the photo albums. When I pointed out that he had wanted her to do that anyway he just grumbled that she shouldn't come into his house when he wasn't there and that was all he said. He didn't mention anything else, like the part of him threatening to burn the photo albums. So again it's a situation that I know because mum let me know but he doesn't know that I know................ Well If you've read my last post you'll get the idea.

I went round J + T's for tea on Sunday night which was really good fun. Rhianna ( finkz I speltz tat write :-) is so big now. She was a little unsure about me to begin with but as I haven't seen her in a while I think that's understandable. J + T also came out to church as well, abet only for sacrament but it was still good to see them. Grumpy being his usual cynical self wanted to know what she wanted from the church now. He also seemed miffed that he didn't get a invite to go round for tea as well. Which I found really confusing because he's said previously he didn't want anything to do with mums side of the family. But then I also discovered that he he fibbed about seeing j when she went in for a interview at the place Grumpy worked. So I just dunno what's going on there anymore. If he's lying, he's just forgetting or he's only telling me what he wants to and not telling me things he doesn't. He just reminds me of the little joke that everybody does at work using their hands when there's a mess up due to people not communicating between departments........

Hello Left hand this right hand. Hello Left hand we haven't spoken in a while have we? no we haven't. We really should, shouldn't we? Yes we should? What r u up to these days? Oh this and that. and you? this and that? We should talk more often. Yes we should... Wait a second your not my left hand! Your not my Right hand! .......

Well I guess it's a lot more funny when people do the voices and the hand gestures at the same time. :-)

J asked about what I was doing for my birthday and If I wanted to go out for a meal or sumthing. That would be fantastic apart from the ever so small problem that my family can't seem to be in the same room as each other or talk to each other with out some sort of argument starting between Mum + grumpy, or J + grumpy etc . Even going out for a meal with half of the family would solve that problem but would cause the new problem of someone being upset that they couldn't come...... so either way I'll loose. seems that I was pretty much spot on when assuming that this birthday would be sucky. Just didn't realize how much potential it has to be one. :-( oh well I guess I'll find out soon enough how things will go)

Friday, July 21, 2006

Arggghhhh. I am sooo glad it's Friday. I really don't know what's going on this week but I'm just shattered for some reason. Although it's not like I've been having trouble sleeping, in fact I've been going to bed earlier then usual. Maybe that's it? After all you do seem, to seem more tired when you have more sleep then usual. Why is that anyway??? It's probably one of those unanswerable questions again.

Mum and Grumpy we're having another fall out over money again. I know this because Mum decided to give me a warning and ask if when Dad bought the subject up I could make a 'suggestion' about one of the issues. Only trouble is, he didn't bring the subject up. So I know, because Mum let me know. But I can't let him know, that I know otherwise he'll know that I only know because mum let me know, which he wouldn't like.So I'm going to have to wait for him to let me know, so he'll know that I know because he let me know and he won't know that I already know because Mum let me know and he didn't have to let me know because I already know...............................

Wait. I think I've confused myself :-(

Well I was supposed to be going home teaching last night. But he didn't turn up. ( not DL but rather M's HT partner who wants to 'borrow' me while M's away). I dunno what's going on there I just seemed extremely fated when it comes to HT. Maybe I'll be able to manage it one day!

I've just seen the best thing on Amazon. A hardbound three volume set of all of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons printed ever! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! That is so cool. Unfortunately it's a bit expensive at £66. So time to start saving the pennies I think. Either that or try giving the Bambi eyes when people ask me What I want for my birthday.

I totally forgot it's the Friday forum tonight in Coventry. I don't think I'll go because I feel so tired I really wouldn't want to risk driving all that way. Downside without M being here I don't think there's anyone else available with a car to give me a lift. It's annoying because it would be nice to go but as the saying goes I 'd rather live to go another day... etc. Oh well. Maybe the YSA r going to do something on Sunday (fingers crossed).

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

and what would I be talking about? Why air conditioning of course. On what's going to be the hottest day of the year we are currently all extremely thankful that the builders did not skimp when installing the AC in this building. We're the 'coolest' building on site and they has been a noticeable lack of willingness on some peoples part to leave the building. Myself included! It's just too darn hot out there. I just read on a news page though that the temperature had got to 47 C (116/6F apparently) on the London underground yesterday but the buses were worse, on some the temperature got to 52 C (125.6F). The mind, well it just boggles, how anyone could cope with that I have no idea. It makes me so very glad that I don't live in London.

one of the guys came back into the office after he had popped across to the canteen to get his lunch. In the time it took him to walk across the car park to our building ( 10 to 15 meters max less then a minutes walk) his chocolate bar melted. Just goes to show you how hot it was out there folks! I'm glad I'm playing a game tonight because by the times it's finished it should have allowed the car to cool off a bit. Trying to drive home yesterday, well lets put it this way, it seemed like a vision of hell. For some reason the traffic was terrible, what is usually a 25 minute trip on clear roads took 70 minutes instead! And the wind (what little of it there was) was going in just the wrong direction to blow into the car window to help cool things down. The fans didn't help as even when I had them on cold there were still only managing to 'blow hot air around'. Yes not a pleasant experience at all and it can be best summed up as yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, YUCK!

Right, lets see what's in the news at the minute. Iraq's going to hell if it's not already there. Lebanon's close behind. Our prime Minster seems to be having delusions of grandeur by calling the evacuation of British citizens the biggest operation of it's kind since Dunkirk, which is technically correct but he's kind of over egging the pudding as it were when compared it to Dunkirk as Dunkirk involved hundreds of ships, boats and aircraft to rescue thousands of troops under constant bombardment from the German forces. In Lebanon we currently have the grand total of one destroyer who shouldn't be threatened in any shape or form because not even Hezbollah would be dump enough to risk the eire of another modern army and air force coming down on them. Mind you even if that was too happen it would be a very short conflict. Well it's not like the Israel forces have left any worthwhile targets standing anyway. ( Wait look he's getting all political. stop him!!)

I really can't think of anything else to say for some reason so until;

If in your search for happinesswhile traveling day to dayIf you should meet with heartacheor hurt along the wayIf in your quest a friend you needsomeone to share your painRemember me,I'm always hereA friend who will remain

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Well that's what it felt like someone should have been shouting when I dragged myself out of bed this morning. It was awfully tempting to just lay there for a few minutes , but I quickly realized that, that would have been a fantastically bad idea and I would have been asking for trouble by drifting of to sleep again.

So why the reason for this tiredness I hear the handful of you who actually read this ask? Well not entirely sure, although it's likely it had something to do with going to see superman Returns last night with the rest of the YSA.

It was a good film (but slipping into geek critic mood now), there was something not 'quite there' to make it a truly great film. there definitely wasn't enough superman as 'clark' scenes because he played 'clark' fantastically well, and I really can't believe that more people didn't go ' wow what amazing coincidence that Clark went away for five years, superman went away for five years and they both arrive back together.........Wait a second!" Also I suppose some of the films more dramatic moments towards the end of the film were slightly undermined by the giggling coming from the far end of the row as hyper/nonstop/red/es ( still can't decide on a codename for her yet) suddenly found things hysterically funny and couldn't stop laughing. I won't mention what she found so funny so not to spoil the film for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

Well on the plus side I was much in demand with the ladies last night, although it was only for my popcorn. Well it was nice to be in demand, even if it was only popcorn. Well it's a start init?

maybe my popularity will improve to such a degree next time I'll be in demand for my drink too :-)

Well it was as shock to realize that it's almost my birthday in just over a month. Where the heck has the year gone!! I think it's likely that this will be quite a sucky birthday as it hasn't been the best of years ( and the prize for understatement of the year goes too...)But I suppose we shall see how things go, shan't we children??

Anyway suddenly having a totally mental block and can't think of anything else,

Monday, July 17, 2006

Well it's usually at the end of writing a post that I hit a mental blank not before, but for some strange reason I seemed to be totally incapable of coming up with a post title today. So please feel free to make up your own based on my inane ramblings.

Well another Monday, another start of a week (well duhh) and the usual amount of work to do which has come in over the weekend. ( downside of the office being shut at the weekend but considering the alternative a downside I'm willing to live with).

Once again I have another tune stuck in my head. Rather then Spiderman it's the superman theme tune and before you you ask I don't know why I seem to keep getting superhero theme tunes tuck in my head. I'm just really, really hoping right now that I don't get the batman theme tune stuck in there sometime! However, thanks to some technical jiggery pokery when it comes to my schedule I am now able to go to FHE with the rest of the YSA to see superman returns at the cinema. The only problem is time wise Things are likely to be incredibly tight to enable me to get home, have dinner then get to the cinema. But hey all part of the fun I guess and if it allows me to spend sometime in the presecence of some wonderful young ladies then so much the better:-)

The power went down at work today so we weren't able to do anything on the computers for nearly 30 minutes. So we quite literally just sat there. No one wanted to go outside as the AC is so good in here that when you do go outside it's likely stepping off a airplane in the tropics. Wumph!! A wall of heat just hits you. So while the weathers like that I'm staying here in the building, thank you very much! Not looking forward to trying to drive home though as I'm fairly certain the Car is going to be doing it's extremely good impression of a oven!

I caught the end of the Spiderman film last night on TV. I've always liked Spiderman, I suppose cause I can relate, the nerd/geek, social misfit ( at least in high school), always overlooked by the girls early on in favor of other guys, yes that's where me and old spidey are identical.. I can't relate to the getting super powers or marrying the super model mainly because that's F-A-N-T-A-S-Y not R-E-A-L-I-T-Y which I'm told is supposed to come first. Curse pesky real life, curse it :-)

Well it was fairly amusing at church yesterday because someone finally asked after mum. Saying they hadn't noticed her around for the past two weeks ( it's actually been months but I wasn't feeling vindictive enough to point that out). But it is times like that, that I miss Coalville It's hard to explain but it just seemed like with coalville it was small enough that people were aware more of each other or maybe it's just that they had a better gossip chain then Loughborough. Sorry, sorry it's not gossip chain, people at church don't gossip I always forget that. It's a method of passing pertinent or information that members of the branch or ward might find interesting to one another. :-)

Friday, July 14, 2006

I’ve recently discovered an unfortunate new skill which to be honest I’d rather not have. I suppose the best way to describe or call this skill is the ability of being ‘technically correct’. What am I gibbering on about now I hear you ask?

Well as grumpy was in such a foul mood I thought I’d better speak to mum to give her a heads up for the next time she spoke to him, and she did call him yesterday to have a chat to him, but she hadn’t mentioned that she had spoken to me. When I got home last night Dad did seem happier but was very suspicious and wanted to know if I had spoken to Mum on Wednesday or emailed her yesterday. To which I answered no I hadn’t. Which was technically correct as I had only spoken to her on Thursday not Wednesday and I hadn’t emailed her.

Was it wrong to answer like that probably? Should I have admitted I had spoken to her about it, again probably? But to be honest I suppose I took the coward’s way out. I had no strength to deal with him flying off the handle again and going into one of his moods. So I suppose that’s why I’ve unfortunately developed this ability, as I just don’t wanna get caught in their crossfire anymore. It’s just so tiring and for want of a better term, Soul sapping. But unfortunately I think that these random crossfire’s might go on for sometime between them, so I think this skill’s going to get far more practice then I ever want. L

I was supposed to be trying to see if any YSA wanted to go out to the cinema to see superman returns but as grumpy has been in such bad moods this week when he said he wanted the car to go out tonight I really didn’t want to argue as it might have put him in a even greater mood. So hey who knows, maybe I can get some ysa together and go somepoint next week. At least letting him have the car seems to have put him in a better mood. I hope it lasts!

DL didn’t turn up for home teaching again on Thursday. Guess he forgot again, and I’ll probably get a slapped wrist from the Elders quorum president again. But until someone invents a memory chip that we can slot into his brian to help improve his memory not a awful lot I can do about it. Just gonna have to keep reminding him I suppose.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

One disadvantage of our buildings at work is that they are very much a 'sun trap'. Or to put it in simple terms if you leave the building without your sunglasses on there's absolutely no way you can see where your going. Which has entertained the people who sit near windows no end as they watch people without shades walking into cars, walls and fences as they vainly squint through the blinding sunlight. Of course it's only amusing until you go outside and forget your shades as well but hey c'est la vie.What go's around come around, you reap what you sow, any other generic cliché here! etc

One of my favorite programs is down back on the TV. Bad lads army, I find it tremdousily amusing to watch a group of 'bad lads' realize that there not quite so tough when faced with 1950s style army training and a bunch of ex army NCOs who wouldn't put up with anything. Especially amusing in this weeks episode was the self confessed 'street fighter' who declared he could beat anyone, who then had to be more or less pinned in his seat to stop him bolting terrified from the room when one of the NCOs bought a python near him. Mind you not that I would want to face up to any of these 'bad lads' in a darkened alley or give them any verbal backchat, but hey that's what the programs for. I can sit back and watch them get their comeuppance. Slightly mean attitude I know but hey the program is extremely entertaining.

I made a interesting discovery in the garage last week. Our exercise bike. It's been in there so long I forgot we had it. We bought it for one of those new years resolutions that we all forgot about extremely quickly. Well after a little clean up I actually recovered it from the garage and starting using it. No! It's impossible! I don't believe it! would I do something like that ? Well I have and I'm trying to spend half an hour a night on it. Well I'm trying to be good now so I thought it was time to start exercising again on a regular basis and trying( as many people can vouch for, I'm very trying), to be good with what I eat before I get big enough to obtain my own gravitational field. It's going slowly but I'm going to try and hang on in there. I actually managed 40 minutes on the bike last night, mainly because I had a lot of anger to burn off. Why was that? I hear some of you ask and who caused it? Well as any regular visitors can guess, it was grumpy ( I'm going to use code names for people from now on, but I think most of you should be able to guess who I'm referring to).

Yes, he's in one of his dark moods again which seem to be all too frequent at the moment. He's getting paid this week and you would think that would lighten him up. But no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's still all doom and gloom. I still haven't mentioned that I met Mum for lunch last week. I was going to but then he threw a paddy ( I can't think of a better word for it) that I've been emailing her and demanded to know if I've been telling her about what he's been doing in my 'sneaky emails'. Give me strength! He's just so paranoid at the moment. I have a feeling another massive argument is about to sneak up and I'll probably be where I always seem to be at the moment. Stuck in the middle :-(

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Well after talking about SH yesterday I was inspired, or at least morbidly interested in finding out what other people from college had been up to so I decided to visit the Friends reunited site. There was the usual mix of marriages, engagements, births, getting the job of their dreams etc. I also found out that AM has got married as well.

Who was AM? I hear the handful of you who might read this and actually care. Well AM ( wait a second I'm getting too confused using initials all the time, I think I'll take a page out of Nemesis book and use codenames instead) or D Rat as I'll refer to him from now on ( that name isn't intended to be a insult it's actually a clue to his surname. If you knew him and know anything about History.) Well D Rat was one of my friends at college as as often happens at college we fell out over a girl who I shall refer to as Jinx.

Well Jinx was my first real love/crush. I'm sure you know exactly what I mean and all remember yours. Well D Rat was aware of this as we three you to hang around together quite a lot ( heck to be honest I think jinx knew about my feelings as well, which is why she did what she did later, but I'll get to that later) Well D Rat used to constantly 'encourage' me to bite the bullet and ask her out, while constantly going on about the legions of girls he was going out with. He kept this 'pushing yup' right until the end of our time at college. As it was the summer before going away to uni we used to hang out at each other's houses quite a lot.

Well one day Jinx and D Rat called all of her family, her best friend and me into their lounge and said they had something to announce. They had be seeing each other for 6 months and had be making up all of the people they had been 'seeing' to cover it up and jinx was also pregnant. Well my first reaction was shock, well to be honest that was my second reaction my first was to resist the urge to smack D Rat round the face. Both of their justifications for not telling me about their relationship was that 'they hadn't told anybody else', when I pointed out all of the lies they said that they had, had to do that to cover things up. When I then spoke to D Rat privately about the fact that even though he and Jinx were dating he was still 'encouraging' me, his response was that he thought I would see the funny side. I summoned up all my self control and immediately left. Well that was the last time I ever saw or spoke to him( their relationship didn't last and unfortunately jinx also lost the baby). I just couldn't deal with such a abuse of my trust ( I've really sucked at choosing friends in the past). Am I sorry about it? no not really and I hope that he enjoys a long and happy marriage. It's just if we ever cross paths again I might act on that impulse to smack him. Well you know what they say it's better to act on your feelings rather then repress them :-)

As for Jinx? Well I made a bit of a huge mistake there. I trusted her again.

She went off to a uni the year after me. She was having some real problems money wise and came to me asking to borrow a fair bit of money (well for a student, lets just say it was in three figures) and promised faithfully that as her mum was moving house she would be able to pay me back very quickly in a maximum of 6 weeks top. Six months later she shut down her email address, had changed her phone number and had moved house, so basically shut off all communication. This came after a increasing series of emails to me where after I had asked several times about when I would get the money back, she replied with some rather nasty emotionally blackmailing comments ( if I have one weakness it's that I can't deal with emotional blackmail/really personal style attacks) such as she thought as a friend I had more trust in her, obviously she trusted me more as a friend then I did her her, she had sent me Cheques but they'd gone missing in the post, etc, etc. I eventually did get some of the money back. But that's only because Mum spotted her in a supermarket and went up and grabbed her and simply told her in front of everyone " He lent you that money in good faith" and then walked away ( I can well imagine the tone Mum used, he, he) .

So it was the beginning of my final year and my best friend of the time had taken a load of my money, then cut off communication not before several nasty emails. So as you can imagine it upset + messed me up a bit at a very important time. However it's round this point that I like to think that all of my previous bad luck with friends started to be balanced out, as I became great friends with a remarkable group of people who helped me through and since then I have only had fantastic luck when it's come to friends especially with the YSA now.

Okay, I think that's enough of a flashback for today. It's interesting how the smallest thing brings back memories init?

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

I ran into somebody from college while in the town in the other day. They recognized me, said hello and went of on what they've been doing since college and what various other people who we both knew at college have been doing since we all left. I grinned, nodded and listened intently while trying to grapple with one insurmountable question. Who was this person? Yes, yes it was one of those horrible moments where I knew the face, well sort of but could not remember anything else about the person. Their name, what classes they did or how I even knew them. but I didn't want to make myself look like a idiot by admitting this, or at least in my case more of a idiot then I actually am, so I was there desperately wanting the conversation to end when this person dropped their bombshell SH had got married. ( not S as in A + S, or S as in S + J who've just got married, but SH from college) wow got think of better code names for people don't i? Why was it a bombshell and why was I so surprised?

Well I'm sure as most people know there's a social pecking order at most schools. The pretty girls and jocks at the top, the nerds and geeks towards the bottom ( which I'm fairly sure I straddled both of the groups so would that have made me a gerd or a neek? who knows?) anyway even below the nerds and the geeks are the 'outcasts' the one who are so weird or Goth like that they don't fit into any group, not that anyone would want them. Well SH was near enough at the bottom of the outcast group only beaten narrowly by the strange girl who went around in a fur lined hooded jacket even in the height of summer and never ever washed, so as you may have guessed SH was pretty much the lowest of the low in the social order of the college. And he's now married, before me. and he's three years younger then me. and not only that apparently he was engaged to another girl before that was broken off and he met his wife. So to recap the loser of the school, three years younger then me has not only to be engaged once but twice and he is now married. While my chances of even getting at the date at the moment appear to be hovering right -100% from my point or the dating ladder which is roughly opposite to the earth's core although I'm probably even further down the ladder now MR is back. Well I think I'm going to deal with this in a calm, sedate and rational manner....................................

" Waggh, waggh, It's not fair, it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair!vv it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair! it's not fair!"

See that was calm, sedate and rational.................................... and if you believe that I just need to run and man the anti aircraft mount on top of the building to defend us against the oncoming squadrons of flying pigs!

I still can't for the life of me figure out who the guy who stopped me and talked to me was either. It'll probably come to me in about six months time when I can't remember why I was trying to remember this guys name anyway. but c'est la vie!

Oh just noticed on the news pages that Nasa has just announced that Discovery has flow a nearly flawless mission so far. D'ohhh!!!!! Are they deliberately trying to jinx it! Mind you all the media were following the launch really intently but as everything is on track they don't seem to be bothered anymore. I suppose it's not as interesting when there's not much chance of danger! It's only really interesting now to geeks, nerds, or neeks and gerds . Or maybe even geek guru nerds, uber geeks, nerd gurus or a neekgerd guru, or maybe I need to stop making up terms and words :-) who knows?

Monday, July 10, 2006

Well after a week of wallowing in the life of doing nothing that was totally constructive, reality has come crashing back in on me. Yes as I want the pennies to spend to get many nice shiny things, it's time to come back to work.

On the plus side there was very little in the way of work waiting for me when I arrived back this morning. Not totally sure if it is a good or bad sign that they seemed to have copied so well without me, we shall see I guess. But regardless, it's back into the old routine etc and I suppose that it's a marginally more constructive way to spend time rather then lazing around at home. ( despite the lazing round at home part being more fun most of the time :-)

Superman returns is out this week and as I was feeling especially brave I'm going to try and organise a group of ysa to go see it. He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he.Yes, yes I know I used the words organise and YSA in the same sentence, really just fated things haven't I?

I've just realized that in my previous post I didn't say what my opinion of the new pirates of the Caribbean movie was. It's good but I don't think it's as good as the first, but only by a small margin. Don't get me wrong it's still a very good film it just seemed to be that there was just a bit too much going on and a lot of what happened just wasn't as memorable as the first film. Well there was that and several of the girls going on about how good they thought one of the characters from the first film looked now he had turned into a pirate. Hmm maybe that's where I'm going wrong, maybe I need to grow my hair and not shave. You never know it could help, although to be honest in my case I'll probably end up looking like a wild man of dunlending ( geek reference) or David Bellamy (what ever happened to him anyway?) Neither the desired effect I would want. So I think I'll put that idea on the 'only if absolutely desperate' file. (no smart comments on that anyone!)

Well I saw the disney film " The emperors new grove" yesterday and it was really, really funny! I heartily recommend that people should watch it even if your not usually into the whole Disney film thing. I watched it round Nemesis's house along with ES, AF and IF (wow codenames get really complicated don't they. well as long as I remember who I am I should be alright. Wait who am I again, argghhhhhhhhhhhhh) I think Nemesis was quite tired as she almost dropped off to sleep a couple of times as she was curled up with one of her big cushions. Although calling it a big cushion was a bit of a understatement. The thing was huge, it almost looked twice the size of her! Although it did look very comfy, but to get a cushion that was twice my size is unlikely as it would probably collapse under it's own gravitational pull. but c'est la vie.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Hmm speaking yoda like I am. Making little sense am I. Starting to annoy you greatly I feel.

Yes, yes after an even bigger gap then last time I have finally got round to writing a new blog entry. Yes I know it was bad to leave such a large gap between blogs but I suppose there was only so many ways I could try and describe cleaning out my room with out you all falling asleep, more! So what have I been up to? I hear you all enquire? And what’s with the title of the post. Hmm all in good time, all in good time!!!

Right first off, I went shopping in Nottingham on Thursday and visiting those mechas of the uber geek shopping experience, forbidden planet and travelling man. I Spent waayy more then I was intended to, but hey I only get to go to each of those shops about once a month now, so I suppose I have to stock up on reading stuff to keep me going to my next visit. Yes, yes I know really bad justification but hey some sort of justification is better then none right??

Went to see pirates of the Caribbean 2 on Thursday night. Almost missed going with the other YSA as I hadn't checked my email and it was only because nemesis texted me to ask if I had seen the email, that I checked my email and read the email so I was aware of the trip. (phew YSA don't organise things in advance much because when we do it does seem to become tremendously complicated doesn't it?). I have to admit that I did get lucky though as I was supposed to be going home teaching but the person who was 'borrowing me' as MT is away for the summer didn't show up. Not sure why, I guess I'll find out tomorrow. Although I did go out with him home teaching last week. So that’s one more home teaching visit then me and DL have managed this year. Yes, I know I know that’s very very bad and I've already had my wrist slapped by the elders quorum president.

I met mum for lunch of Friday, which was nice. I haven't mentioned it to Dad, as I'm not sure what his reaction will be. He's in one of those funny moods again. He went out last night and tonight (in fact he's still out as I write this) and still won't tell me where he goes. To be honest I'm just trying to keep out of the line of fire where those two are concerned, as I'm so tired at getting dragged into things. But with the way things are at the moment 'c'est la vie'

Oh yes, the title, I did say I was going to explain that didn't I? Well it was S + J (I spelt it wrong last time as G not J) wedding today, and basically on the seating chart for the reception my surname was spelt Bowmont not Beaumont. To be honest I found it quite amusing as it was still spelt wrong yet was also 'right'.

It was a lovely service and reception. A lot of fun to as most church wedding receptions are over pretty quickly but as they were booked into the late session at the temple and the wedding had started very early they had a band and dancing and things, including a chocolate fountain! Which went down very well especially with the kids and big kids (a.k.a the YSA). R even managed to get me up for a dance to. Which was quite fun even though I'm sure I looked like the incredible hulk when trying to dance. (Urggh rhythm made me move!). There was a lot of YSA there so got some good photos and A + S were there too with all the kids. So all in all a very good day. Although Dad's parting comment when I left to head to the wedding this morning was " Well I S can find someone maybe there's a small amount of hope for you yet"

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Hey guess what? i now have a fairly good idea of what the wicked witch from the wizard of Oz felt like when she melted. Seriously this heat wave is not any fun at alllllll. On the plus side as I'm not at work at least I can wear shorts around the house, which is helping, well that at the fact with our nice shiny new fridge I can have nice cold drinks whenever I want. See silver lining in every situation. well usually. :-)

Well the cleaning out of the room is continuing to go well. I discovered a strange new substance on the floor of my bedroom today. Apparently it is commonly know as 'carpet' and has always been there. It seems I must have forgotten about it as it's been so long since I've seen it. he, he. Anyway it appears I might have actually been underestimating the number of books and things I have. I'm sure some of you might think I'm exaggerating but I’m not. Hey i might even taken a photo so you can see for yourselves. If I can remember where the camera is now.

Errm not really sure what else to say. I guess it's just being one of those days and I’ll probably think of tons of things to say once I've logged off, but what the heck.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the internet! I’m back! I’m sure the handful of you who actually read this blog and or take any notice may have seen my last post was on last Thursday. Has the rot set in already? Am I already fed up writing this thing????? Erhh no. To use the highly technical definition Dad’s computers power supply went boom! Fortunately DL had a spare power supply and he very graciously swapped it round for us. Although I did get lost on the way to his house. I kept driving round and round looking for c avenue and despite my best efforts just could not find it. I then suddenly noticed C drive. So as you might have guessed DL’s directions are on an effectiveness par equal to SW.

Well the car went in for it’s MOT and passed, yahhhhh!!!!!! Well technically not on it’s first try, as one of my front tires was below requirements and the other one was only just above. So I to go and get a replacement tire before it could pass the MOT and I decided that while I was there I might as well get the other one done at the same time. Wasn’t too bad £80ish for the pair which Dad assures me was quite good and he’s even going to pay for one. So rather then spending £120 in two hours I only spent £80 technically. Still not good but not as bad I suppose J The car still has one minor problem though it wasn’t enough to effect MOT but it still needs to be fixed before it changes from minor to major, but that’s gonna have to wait till next payday.

Well made a start on the room. Sorta!! Been going through my book collection. Not entirely sure but I think I’m gonna be looking at 200+ books in total. Wow!!! Where the heck did all they come from? Downside of getting so many free books I suppose. Wow isn’t my life tough J but still got a few more days to try and sort the rest of the stuff out.

Well even though not everyone is commenting on my posts (hint, hint!), I have installed a counter which means I can see people are actually coming to visit. Wow, slightly scary that people are actually reading this. Whether they can actually understand my ramblings is another matter, he, he, he. I even got mentioned in Nemesis’s blog. Next thing you know people might actually start asking me questions and then where will things end?

Anyway, M.R is back from his mission and C is back from her travels, so Loughborough YSA is actually growing again. We had a huge class for Sunday school and CE taught a fantastic lesson. He even mentioned about dating and said that if weren’t dating why not ? (Interesting question, wish I had a answer) and we should be (easier said then done).

We went to Beacon Hill in the evening and although there was only me, ES, AF and Nemesis we had a really good time talking. I even took some pictures of the great view and of Nemesis and ES stuffing their face with cookies. Heck if I’m even feeling suicidal enough I might actually post them… he, he, he, he, he